Quick-thinking Chinese entrepreneurs expand beauty and fashion businesses online during coronavirus lockdowns

One stylist developed a DIY alternative to the elaborate manicures nail salons offer, for sale to her social media followers; another upped her online presence

A Shanghai pair who host markets for vendors of creative goods ventured into online selling for the first time, but look forward to resume selling in person

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Maggie Fu, a Shanghai-based beauty influencer, was among the young beauty and fashion entrepreneurs in China who moved to expand online when coronavirus lockdowns shut off in-person sales and marketing channels.

Published: 7:15am, 27 Apr 2020Updated: 6:11pm, 28 Apr 2020

In China and around the world, the coronavirus pandemic has decimated business revenues. Shops have closed, production lines have halted, and marketing projects have been stalled – many indefinitely.

For Maggie Fu, a Shanghai-based make-up artist and beauty influencer, the widespread stay-at-home orders in China at the start of the outbreak created an opportunity.

With tens of millions of manicure enthusiasts unable to visit nail salons, and fellow quarantined KOLs (key opinion leaders) and their followers sharing photos online of their overgrown cuticles and chipped nail paint, Fu thought: why not create a nail product that people could easily apply themselves at home?

She is in the process of creating a stick-on, DIY manicure kit that delivers salon-quality nails, with no skill required by customers to apply them.

Maggie Fu is a make-up artist and manicure enthusiast.

Fu told the Post she is sourcing the best materials from Japan and designing the colours and nail art herself to create a unique and exceptional product that reflects her own aesthetic. If current feedback from her followers is anything to go by, her idea, born out of a crisis, is set to be a hit.